I move recommendation No. 3: In page 20, between lines 28 and 29, to insert the following: “Report on Trans-Border Workers’ Relief in the context of Cross-Border Workers 16. The Minister shall, within six months of the passing of this Act, prepare and lay before Dáil Éireann a comprehensive report on the Trans-Border Workers’ Relief in the context of people who reside in the State and work in the North and the tax status and options of people who reside in the North and work in this State.”. The issue of transborde…

I thank the Minister. I appreciate the lengthy reply. We are not going to agree on this but I note he is willing to keep an eye on the ongoing issue.

I move recommendation No. 4: In page 20, between lines 28 and 29, to insert the following: “Report on tapering out of income tax credits 16. The Minister shall, within six months of the passing of this Act, prepare and lay before Dáil Éireann a report on tapering out income tax credits for incomes between €100,000 and €140,000 at a rate of 2.5 per cent for each €1,000 earned.”. Even before the pandemic an ageing population, potential over-reliance on corporation tax receipts and an inevitable decline in motor tax r…

I thank the Minister for the extended reply. I appreciate that. We have clear ideological differences here and should acknowledge that. I am fascinated that, when it comes to the wealthy in society, we need to give them incentive after incentive, or else they may not stay here. When it comes to ordinary working people, for much of the past six months, we have heard that pandemic unemployment payments are too much and employers are no longer able to find workers. There is one rule in place for people on low incomes …

If we get into a back and forth, it will probably not be particularly productive, to be fair. There are clear ideological differences between the Minister and me. I believe that someone who earns €140,000 can afford to pay a little more tax. We need that tax and we will need it in the years to come. One of the reasons we have exactly half the ICU beds we are supposed to have in this country, and we were told we would need in the 2009 Prospectus report, is because, year after year, this Government, unfortunately, di…

I move recommendation No. 5: In page 20, between lines 28 and 29, to insert the following: “Report on income levy on high incomes 16. The Minister shall, within six months of the passing of this Act, prepare and lay before Dáil Éireann a report on the introduction of a high-income levy on high incomes in excess of €140,000.”.

I move recommendation No. 6: In page 20, between lines 28 and 29, to insert the following: “Report on income tax relief 16. The Minister shall, within six months of the passing of this Act, prepare and lay before Dáil Éireann a report on an income tax relief equivalent in value to 8.3 per cent of annual rent to all private rental tenants not already in receipt of any State subsidy, examining the social and economic impact of this measure in the context of high levels of rent and other policy levers such as a ban on…

If anything shows how out of touch this Government is, it is the Minister's statement. We have a rental crisis, which happened under the Minister's watch. The problem has been getting worse year after year. We have hard-working families who simply cannot afford the rents they are being charged. Yet, a simple proposal to actually give those hard-working families a break in this budget has been rejected again by this Government. I do not think the Minister understands the level of distress families are suffering due …

We are not finished yet. First, for the record I never used the word "landlord" at all in my contribution so the Minister might care to listen a little more closely. Second, the Minister's contribution is extraordinary because one would almost think from listening to it that the housing crisis is some kind of natural phenomenon like an earthquake or storm but it is nothing of the kind. The housing crisis happened as a direct result of Government policy, or to be more explicit, it happened as a direct result of fail…

In this city we have the highest rents anywhere in Europe.

That is the reality and that is the Minister's record. We should have some accountability on that and the figures are getting worse in the rental sector, not better.

I am.

I want to speak to recommendation No. 13 in particular which, as Senator Higgins stated, is similar to her recommendation. I have tabled a number of recommendations calling for reports into the tax treatment of REITs and IREFs and the broader economic impact of institutional investment in the housing market. I want to begin with the tax treatment of REITs and IREFs and the application of capital gains tax. Investment funds in the housing market pay no capital gains tax on disposal of their assets. We have just hear…

I want to shine a light on the actual taxation situation. In 2019, tax paid by IREFs relative to pre-tax profits was 9.1%. That was less than the 25% paid by any other landlord or the 12.5% paid by any other company. Furthermore, as I said, they are entirely exempt from capital gains tax. We disagree with the Minister on this policy issue. We believe the tax advantage enjoyed by these funds is pricing struggling homebuyers out of the market and driving up rents. We also know these funds are, in the vast majority of…

I move recommendation No. 10: In page 36, between lines 34 and 35, to insert the following: “Report on the tax treatment and economic impact of institutional investment in the housing market 28. The Minister shall, within six months of the passing of this Act, prepare and lay before Dáil Éireann a report on the tax treatment and economic impact of institutional investors and corporate landlords in the housing market, including their impact on tenure, affordability, property price and rental price dynamics.”. I am n…

This would be a useful report for the Government to have compiled. Unfortunately, the Minister has made it extremely clear that while he is proud to defend tax reliefs for vulture funds, he is in complete denial of the need for tax reliefs for hard-pressed renters. He has no interest in taking on board any of our recommendations for reports. I do not intend to rehearse the arguments we had earlier about the outrageous tax reliefs for REITs and IREFs. I will simply say that the Minister is out of touch with the desp…

It is a report. We are asking for a report.

I thank Senator Higgins. Recommendation No. 12 calls for a report on restricting banks that were bailed out by the taxpayer from carrying forward losses against taxable profits in a manner that has previously resulted in many of them paying no corporation tax whatsoever. The report would also examine the introduction of a 25% cap on profits that could be written off by carried forward losses in any given year and the introduction of a ten-year limit on the use of losses for this purpose. As we enter a new phase of …

It is so depressing to hear this debate. A 100% write-off of losses for banks is no problem; that is the Fine Gael way. Tax reliefs for vulture funds are no problem either but there is not 1 cent for renters in this budget. That is class politics.

It was more tax relief for landlords. We did vote against it. No apologies.